Oral Answers to Questions Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade
Max Wilkinson
Main Page: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)Department Debates - View all Max Wilkinson's debates with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade
(1 day, 10 hours ago)
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Jonathan Reynolds
I warmly welcome my hon. Friend’s question on reindustrialisation, which is an essential part of the Government’s programme. Backing reindustrialisation does not mean that we do not recognise the tremendous contribution of services, and it is not nostalgia—it is about looking at the brilliant innovation that we have in the UK and seeing it scaled up. Doing so requires policy intervention, and I am extremely pleased that the British industrial competitiveness scheme will shortly come online, bringing down our energy and electricity prices for 10,000 British manufacturers and ending the situation we inherited from the Tories where we had the highest energy prices of any industrialised major nation. We do have to look at targets, and I will look at the one my hon. Friend has proposed, but I also think there are other areas we have to include in that to get the holistic impact that we need.
Max Wilkinson (Cheltenham) (LD)
The Golden Valley development in west Cheltenham enjoys the support of this Government—I can see the Minister smiling, because I have spoken to him about it a lot—and enjoyed the support of the previous Government, too. It is driven locally by the local council, and supported by businesses like the developer, HBD. It will generate 12,000 jobs and close to £1 billion of investment supporting our cyber and tech industry, and will crucially support the work of GCHQ. However, to really unlock the success of the development, we need to be given designated area status so that the local council can then start to reinvest in the local business community, as it has done so far at the development. Will the Secretary of State have a word with the Chancellor, ahead of the Budget, to see if we can bring about success in that bid?
Jonathan Reynolds
Everything the hon. Gentleman has said sounds hugely attractive to me. He has clearly already engaged with Government to some degree, but I will follow up on his question and see what we can do to support his local area.